Arthur Wayne Johnson, appointed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to a top post in the federal government’s trillion-dollar financial aid operations, resigned Thursday, calling the student loan system “fundamentally broken” and urging the elimination of millions of Americans’ student debt.

 
With his Brexit deal “paused” and his “do-or-die” promise to leave the European Union by the end of October dashed, Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday said that he would ask the fractious Parliament to agree to a Dec. 12 general election.
In a letter to opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Johnson said he would give the divided Parliament one last chance to scrutinize his withdrawal agreement legislation and “get Brexit done” by Nov. 6.
In his missive to Corybyn, Johnson warned that, regardless, he would put forth under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act on Monday, a motion seeking an early general election.
Under that act, two-thirds of Parliament must agree to go to elections. It is uncertain that Johnson could win the two-thirds he needs.

Residents of El Talento, a small town in Colombia adjacent to the city of Cúcuta, have been introduced to the GEN-M, Watergen’s medium-scale atmospheric generator (AWG) that produces water out of air.
The machine, a technological innovation of the Israel-based company, arrived in Cúcuta at the beginning of October thanks to Andrés Suárez, pastor of the Christian Center and general manager of the alliance project with the State of Israel in Colombia.
Suárez said he was driven by a desire to show residents in northern Colombia that such technology can provide some of the most needy communities in the region with safe drinking water.

Iran will never give up its resistance against America, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said at a recent ceremony at Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer training academy.
As part of the ceremony, IRGC members, including special forces soldiers belonging to Quds Force, performed rappelling and marching drills for Khamenei.
One soldier shouted out: “Tel Aviv will be destroyed … No remnant of the Saud clan will remain … The Kaaba will be liberated … We respond to your call, oh Khamenei!” and marching soldiers sang: “Death to America! We are the conquerors of Jerusalem and the destroyers of Haifa! Death to Israel!”
The ceremony aired on Iran’s Channel 1 TV (Iran) on Oct. 13 and Oct. 14.

The Israel Defense Forces demolished the home of Islam Yousef Abu Hamid for the second time on Thursday, after his family rebuilt it following the original demolition in December 2018.
Abu Hamid was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2019 by an Israeli military court for the murder of IDF St. Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky in Samaria.
“Recently, the IDF spotted that rebuilding was taking place at the location,” the army said in a statement, according to a report in the Times of Israel. The funding for the reconstruction of the home was provided by the Palestinian Authority, according to the report, which said on Thursday it would pay to once again rebuild the family home.

A World Jewish Congress survey published on Thursday dramatically underlined the continuing rise of antisemitism in Germany, with more than one in four respondents expressing agreement with statements that were based upon classic anti-Jewish tropes.
Out of the 1,300 Germans who participated in the survey, 27 percent concurred with a range of antisemitic statements and stereotypes. The survey was conducted two months ago, before the attempted massacre by a neo-Nazi gunman of Jewish worshipers who attended Yom Kippur services at a synagogue in Halle on Oct. 9.

Blue and White and Likud party leaders Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet in the coming days to discuss the possibility of forming a unity government, the parties announced on Wednesday night. The announcement followed Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s official transfer of the mandate to form a government to Gantz.
To form a government, a majority of 61 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament is needed—a result its seems unlikely either party can achieve without the assistance of the other.
Netanyahu, who was unable to form a government within the 28-day deadline, said he will be negotiating on behalf of the right-wing and religious bloc and will not enter into a coalition without the 55-member alliance.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., advertised a news conference Thursday to announce a resolution condmening the House impeachment inquiry as partisan rancor continued to escalate over the Ukraine scandal.
After two dramatic days of closed-door depositions, House investigators are pausing in honor of the late congressman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the former House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman who will lie in state in the Capitol.
But debate over the fairness of the inquiry is continuing unabated, with President Donald Trump praising House Republicans for storming a secure room where dispositions are being held and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accusing GOP lawmakers of “covering up” for a president abusing his power.

Rep. Tim Ryan announced Thursday that he is ending his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and will run for a ninth term in the House.
Ryan, D-Ohio, who pitched himself as the candidate best poised to talk to working-class people and take back Rust Belt states from President Donald Trump, failed to qualify for the third and fourth Democratic debates. He has a Dec. 11 deadline to file to run for reelection in his Ohio district.
“I am announcing today that I am withdrawing from the presidential campaign,” Ryan said in a video posted on Twitter. “After seven long months of hard work, I’ll be returning home to my family and friends and community in Ohio to run for reelection for my congressional seat.”

More than half a million people have lost power across California as part of a deliberate blackout designed to keep power lines from igniting wildfires. Meanwhile, a major blaze has already erupted.
PG&E Corp. and other utilities have cut service to nearly 200,000 homes and businesses in shutoffs that could eventually affect 1.5 million people as wind storms threatens to knock down power lines. About 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of San Francisco, a fire ripped through more than 10,000 acres in Sonoma County in just hours.